Nogarenaku tsui ni yuku beki michi o sawa shirade wa ikaga sugu bekarikeru

逃れなくつひに行くべき道をさは
知らではいかが過ぐべかりける

Roma-ji: Nogarenaku tsui ni yuku beki michi o sawa shirade wa ikaga sugu bekarikeru
English Translation: With no escape from it,
the road we all must take at last,
how then could one
go on living without
knowing of it at all?
Meaning: The road that none can escape, that all must take in the end, how then could one go on living without knowing it?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 905

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On what I was thinking in my heart"
This is the third of the five. The road none can escape, which all must take at last, how could one live without knowing it? the poet asks, saying one must not look away from death but live with the next life in mind.
'Tsui ni yuku michi,' the road one goes at last, is known from the poem said to be Ariwara no Narihira's last, 'Tsui ni yuku / michi to wa kanete / kikishikado / kinō kyō to wa / omowazarishi o.'

First line, “nogarenaku”: with no escape.
Second line, “tsui ni yuku beki”: that one must go at last, the road of death.
Third line, “michi o sawa”: sawa is then.
Fourth line, “shirade wa ikaga”: de is negative; not knowing it, how.
Fifth line, “sugu bekarikeru”: how could one go on living? closing with a rhetorical sense.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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